BOSTON — The Massachusetts Department of Public Health is proposing to charge medical marijuana dispensaries an annual fee of $50,000, while assessing patients a yearly $50 fee.

The department today filed draft regulations to create fees that would pay for running the program including hiring staff and inspectors. The law for medical marijuana, approved by voters last November, is designed to be “revenue neutral,” meaning fees – not tax dollars – should pay for all costs to the state, including oversight and regulation, the department said.

The dispensaries will set the price that patients will pay for medical marijuana. The department will not regulate or set those prices. The dispensaries, however, will have to come up with a plan for offering medical marijuana at no or reduced cost for certain low-income people.

Allen said the $50 annual registration fee does not seem onerous, but medical marijuana is not covered by insurance and paying for the drug can be a burden.

Allen also questioned a proposed $100 yearly fee for a hardship cultivation license. “That just doesn't make sense. These patients have already demonstrated limited income.”

Allen said the $50,000 annual fee for dispensaries seems reasonable to cover the department’s costs of administering the program.

A public hearing on the draft regulations is scheduled for June 14 at 1 p.m. at the department’s offices in Boston.

On May 8, the Public Health Council approved regulations for cultivation and dispensing of medical pot and registration of patients.

According to the draft regulations, registered marijuana dispensaries would pay a $1,500 fee for the first phase of an application and $30,000 for the second phase, both non-refundable.

Licensed dispensaries would pay a $50,000 annual fee for registration and renewal. Dispensaries would also be required to pay an annual $500 registration fee for each of their agents.

Patients would pay a $50 annual registration fee, and patients who qualify for a hardship cultivation license would pay an additional $100 annual fee.

Under the ballot law, as many as 35 nonprofit dispensaries could open around the state, including at least one and not more than five in each county.

Dispensaries could be licensed by the end of the this year and might open early next year.

Under the law, people with certain “debilitating medical conditions,” including cancer, glaucoma, the virus that causes AIDS or “other conditions” determined by a doctor, can obtain a registration card and possess up to a 60-day supply of marijuana.